I think that stealth technology could do with some changes as well in the future. I don't generally think that stealth is worth the research for the rather minimal impact it will have on the game. Stealth probably need to scale better on ships so it make sense to put stealth on even larger ships or it is not really worth investing in it, in my opinion.
Stealth can be handy on scouts. On warships, it is oftentimes a waste of displacement. The enemy does know where you are when you intend to fire due to the fact that an active sensor lock is always required. At that point the enemy should either extend the distance to run the incoming weapons dry or close to get a target lock himself. In beam combat stealth is completely irrelevant.
Yes... but not when considering the investment in resources you need, that research is much better invested in better sensors and engine technology or just about anything else really.
The very limited use of stealth is simply not really worth it... especially since scouting is so effective in small platforms who also is very cheap. Stealth platforms rarely is cheap, neither in research nor in actual costs.
Stealth in it's current form does not give you much advantage in the game for it to be really worth using... that is why I think the mechanic needs an overhaul so it become useful.
Perhaps make it so ships become nearly impossible to find but also at the same time give some other negative drawbacks... this could make it interesting for entering into systems undetected for example. Make stealth a charge based system so it can only be used a finite number of times and a finite time limit but nearly impossible to find. While under cloak you also can't use anything but passive sensors, no fire-controls can be activated either, but you can't be hit either.
If a cloak is activated while an opponent have a you under active sensor and identified you the cloaking will fail... so you can't just disappear if detected and you can't use the cloaking device all the time either.
This would make cloaking actually interesting mechanically, just reducing the sensor detection size really have limited use in the game. While I think such a mechanic can still remain... there could be both stealth and cloaking technology, stealth need to be MUCH cheaper and work more like stealth for engines and not take up extra space on ships. Cloaking need to be something else and much more powerful as well as investment into research.
Stealth could just make armour cost more, so stealth work more like engine stealth. The armour have stealth abilities and you want less armour on stealth ship or they become very expensive, so shields are probably a good idea for stealth ships rather than armour.